It is located on the island of Sumatra, and was created on 4 October 1999 from the former western districts of North Aceh Regency.

[1] It is bordered by the Strait of Malacca on the northeast coastline.

Bireuen has been affected by the clashes between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the government, and by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami on 26 December 2004.

The regency's name is commonly spelled without the diaeresis on the ⟨ë⟩: Kabupaten Bireuen (in Acehnese, ⟨ë⟩ represents a schwa ([ə]) in diphthongs).

The regency is divided administratively into seventeen districts (kecamatan), tabulated below with their areas and their populations at the 2010 Census[3] and the 2020 Census,[4] together with the official estimates as at mid 2023.